Christmas Day 2022

After breakfast and Christmas readings, we opened gifts. 

Avril asked for crochet supplies galore. We gave her one of every single size needle and this Harry Potter character kit. She's getting great at crochet and takes a lot of joy in the works she makes.  

Wearable blankets were the biggest hit with everyone.

Arcus enjoyed the festivities, too. Later, he destroyed a few of the empty boxes bite by bite. Turning boxes into confetti is his favorite past-time. 

Norah, now being an adult, now making her own money, now having access to cool antique stores and craft festivals in and around here college in Franklin, TN, bought Dwayne an awesome drinking horn!

New converse for that college life- purple for everyday, black and white pair for special occasions

Norah bought me an antique book of poetry! There are ample notes in the margins from the previous owner who was quite well-read and who loved mythology! I love it when previous owners make notes in old books! She also bought me a doily that happens to fit perfectly over the cork round where I sit my drinks. My side table is starting to look like an eighty year old's side table with this doily, my favorite hand creams, books and pencils for cross words, etc. 

Dwayne gifted the family an amazing chess set. The pieces are massive and the base is inlayed wood. The coolest thing about this gift is that the girls and I saw an antique chess piece from The Middle Ages at The Cloisters. The piece was one of the favorite things we saw (and similar to the king in this set.) We all agreed we'd love to have an entire chess set just like that piece, but Dwayne was not there with us, he did not see the Chess piece, or hear that conversation. Yet he bought this. It's uncanny. The girls promptly played a round. The moved the new chess board to the small table in the dining room where we have been keeping our old set, made of plastic. This new set looks so beautiful near the grand piano. 

The queen in this set is also holding a drinking horn, just like the one Norah gave Dwayne today, which is another neat detail. 

I got a new cookbook that I wanted! I've already read it through and I'm interested in making almost everything, especially everything in the dinner section. 

Adele made me this Christmas cross stitch (with her big sister, Avril's, help on the design) 

Arcus devouring a Lego box

CS Lewis said he didn't take naps, but, "Mind you, sometime a nap takes me." Well , a nap took me in the quiet hours of the afternoon. I pulled our Santa hat down over my eyes to block the sunlight and snuggled the Christmas pillow. It was the perfect nap. 

Our neighbors gifted the girls Barnes and Noble gift cards, which they are eager to go buy books with tomorrow firs thing. Our neighbors are the most generous people we know. 

Norah worked on some items for her Etsy shop to raise even more money for college life. This time- mushroom earrings!

Legos, legos everywhere! A treehouse and Dumbledoor's office

I made Italian Annisette cookies with anise, and we enjoyed them after dinner. I remember tasting these when we first moved to Connecticut twenty-ish years ago and I remember thinking the anise flavor ruined these cookies and that they were far too dry, etc. But these a very popular cookies around here. So over the years and years and years of living in Connecticut, these have become one of my favorite cookies, especially with hot tea or coffee. I truly love them now. 

Dwayne took a few minutes in the garage to create a holder for his drinking horn from a piece of our old upright piano. But this is a just mock-up. We're all giving input on the design. The wires holding the horn now will be replaced with something the girls will carefully form and finish. And Dwayne has to make some careful cuts and do some staining on the base. 

It was a truly lovely day, everyone working together in the same room on various things while listening to Christmas songs and hymns. 

Thank God for Christmas!